Saturday, June 23, 2007

Well here it is - the day I have been dreading for some time has arrived, 50 years old today!!!! It is very hard to believe and take in. 50 for me is one of the birthdays I have been least looking forward to, and I can't really explain why ( some deep philosophical mortality thing I guess?).
But when it arrives there is no way of avoiding it.... ( much like death and taxes) .... even though you may wish to.
The whole thing is made much easier to take by being surrounded by a good ( if a tad ,sarcastic!!!) family, for which I am extremely grateful.
For example the cake above was lovingly made by my 18 ( soon to be 19) year old daughter ( Emily has 2 children Abbi 17 months and Jaycob 5 months old). emily has had a difficult time during her teenage years and we have gone through some very low and difficult times - but she spent all of Friday afternoon at my mum's house making this cake for me - it is pretty well all her own work and it really made me feel proud of her, and the way she has grown into a woman and a mother. So far that single action has made me feel that perhaps I should just be grateful, and just grow old DIS-gracefully!!!!!

The balloon and card avalanche arrived this morning ( following many hushed conversations at home that I was told to keep away from!!!!!!) Many thanks to all for their congratulations. Most of all to my wife - who has all of this to come next year ( tee hee!!!), after all she has been very brave and put up with me for the past 24 years!!! ( most prisoners are let out after 10!!)You will dear reader have noticed that so far I have avoided getting myself in shot - sadly this could not last.... so here are some pictures of the person who usually prefers to stay the other side of the camera lens!!!
I plan now to start counting backwards for birthdays and hope to goodness I don't make it to a century!!!! As for presents well....... there is the small matter of a track day at Silverstone behind the wheel of a Ferrari 355!!!!! Hey I could get used to this .... 51 here we come : )


6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congratulations on reaching this milestone, Paul. It sounds like you have all the support you need for 50 more!

AllanahK said...

I must admit that turning 50 was nice in that people from all over thought to pay homage to that fact that you had outlasted many.

Life is not a race to be first finished and it is great that you are having the chance to enjoy it along the way.

Happy Birthday from New Zealand.

Cheers

Allanah

Joe said...

Happy 50th Birthday Paul. Thanks for all your inspirations this year.

Jane Nicholls said...

Hey, have a very happy day!! And enjoy that day racing!

Rachel Boyd said...

Wow! just to echo the thoughts of everyone else.. congratulations on reaching this milestone... looks like you had a great day!

Mr Harrington said...

Thanks everyone for the kind comments, I really enjoyed a fab family Birthday weekend :) now it's back to school tomorrow!!!

A dear friend

It seems very apt to be writing this blog post in tribute to a dear, dear friend. The world has lost a true global educational  IT innovator...